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CA Gov Signs
T* Hate Crime Law

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
NewsPlanet Staff
September 30, 1998

California Governor Pete Wilson (R) has signed into law a bill clarifying that transgendered people are a protected category under the state's hate crimes law. Although prosecutors in San Francisco and Los Angeles had already used the hate crimes statute in cases of assaults motivated by gender or gender expression, the new law is expected to make this practice uniform across the state. AB 1999 was introduced by the State Assembly's first openly lesbian member Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) with Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) as its chief co-sponsor.

AB 1999 also had early support from state Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren, even though both Lungren and Wilson have made anti-gay moves while in office. Wilson recently vetoed a measure that would have extended the filing period for complaints of workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation to match that for other protected categories.

The enactment of the hate crimes law was hailed by the [San Francisco] Bay Area Transgender Law Association, whose co-chair Vicky Kolakowski remarked on the contrast in legislators' reactions to the measure compared to a transgender civil rights bill introduced two years ago. At that time, she said, "most legislators seemed uncomfortable with just hearing the word 'transgender.' This time around they publicly championed on our behalf." While applauding a number of people for their part in that turnaround, Kolakowski gave the bulk of the credit to Kuehl and her staff.

Australia's Hanson Weeps Over "Pantsdown" Satire

Contributed by Rachelle Austin
Reuters
September 28, 1998

BRISBANE, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Australian nationalist politician Pauline Hanson broke down in court on Monday before a judge agreed to uphold a ban against a song about her by a cross-dressing satirist who calls himself Pauline Pantsdown.

Hanson cried as the song, which brings into question her sexuality and her views on race, was played during a Queensland Court of Appeal hearing. The court ruled against an appeal by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to overturn an earlier injunction preventing the song being played on radio. Hanson is suing the ABC over the song and won the injunction a year ago.

"I was very upset by it," Hanson told reporters outside the court, adding the decision to uphold the injunction was a clear message people could not "defame others and tell lies." Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation party is campaigning for an October 3 general election, its first national poll, but has seen its support steadily decline from highs of about 13 percent in July.

Hanson grabbed international headlines two years ago when, in her maiden parliamentary speech, she claimed Australia was in danger of being swamped by Asians and that native Aborigines received unfair privileged treatment. Justice Paul De Jersey said in upholding the injunction that the song was defamatory and a "mindless effort at cheap denigration."

"These were grossly offensive imputations relating to the sexual orientation and preference of a federal politician," De Jersey said. The ABC argued the song was "derisory nonsense," satirical, not to be taken seriously and therefore incapable of being defamatory.

Pantsdown, a character created by Sydney arts lecturer Simon Hunt, recently released another song spoofing Hanson. Pantsdown is running in the election for a seat in the upper house of parliament, or Senate, where One Nation is hoping to win the balance of power.

On A Dare
Man Gets Breasts

Contributed by Hebe Dotson
via Maxim Magazine
September 26, 1998

Man Gets Breast Implants -- A recent issue of Maxim magazine profiles Las Vegas gambler Brian Zembic, 37, who in October [1997] earned $100,000 on a dare from a colleague by having breast-implant surgery and leaving the implants in a full year. According to the [June 1998] article, he has not taken them out yet. Said Zembic, "Having breasts gives you insight into what life is like for women. You start to see what pigs men are."

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